US President Joe Biden delivered remarks on Tuesday night following the horrific elementary school shooting in Uvalde, Texas, in which 18 students and three adults were murdered.
“I hoped that I would not have to do this again. Another massacre in Uvalde, Texas,” said Biden, standing alongside First Lady Jill Biden.
"Beautiful, innocent, second, third, fourth graders. And how many scores of little children who witness what happened, see their friends die, as if they're on a battlefield for God's sake," Biden said, adding, "To lose a child is like having a piece of your soul ripped away...it's never quite the same.”
“Tonight, I ask the nation to pray for them. Give the parents and the siblings strength in the darkness they’re feeling right now.”
“When in God’s name are we going to stand up to the gun lobby? When in God’s name are we going to do what we know in our gut needs to be done?” said Biden, adding, “The idea that an 18-year-old can walk into a gun store and buy two assault weapons -- it's just wrong.”
“I am sick and tired. We have to act. And don’t tell me we can’t have an impact on this carnage,” he continued.
"These kinds of mass shootings never happen with the frequency that they happen in America. Why do we keep letting this happen? We can do so much more. We have to do more."